Warning! SPOILERS for Enola Holmes 2 ahead.Netflix’s Enola Holmes 2 largely revolves around the story of London match girl Sarah Chapman and her revelation and revelation of the poor factory conditions in a match factory that led to the match girls strike of 1888. it did highlight an important figure in British history in Chapman. Enola Holmes 2s ending credits give a little more information about Sarah Chapman and the impact of her strike, but she lived a long life and has a great legacy worth investigating further.
Enola Holmes 2 sees Enola tackling her second case: the disappearance of matchgirl strike figure Sarah Chapman. Going undercover didn’t take long for Enola to discover the appalling working conditions of match girls. The real Chapman was a source in an 1888 article by Annie Besant exposing these conditions, and she and two other women sought Besant’s help organizing a strike. On July 5, 1888, an estimated 1,400 match girls went on strike and the end of Enola Holmes 2 depicted Sarah mobilizing these girls with a rousing speech. A few weeks after this strike, the inaugural meeting of the Women Match Makers, then the largest women’s union in the country, took place, of which Chapman was elected to the board. She would marry and start a family a few years later, eventually leaving Bryant & May Factory. She lived to age 83, and although she had left the factory, she remained a strong supporter of women’s rights until her death.
Sarah Chapman’s Matchgirls Legacy Explained
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If the credits of Enola Holmes 2 read, the matchgirls strike of 1888 was “the first-ever women’s industrial action for women. It improved their working conditions forever.” Three days after the strike, Bryant & May ended their fine system that took wages from match girls who showed up late, talked to work or went to the bathroom, and rehired workers they had fired for dating Besant. spoken. It was three more years before they stopped using the yellow phosphorus in their matches, which caused match girls to contract the deadly infectious disease typhoid, as depicted in Enola Holmes 2.
The strike was also the first time a union of unskilled workers managed to strike for better wages and working conditions in London, sparking a wave called “New Unionism” for unskilled workers. Along with these changes, the strike also helped raise public awareness of the dangerous working conditions faced by low-paid, unskilled workers. When they heard about the strike and read Besant’s articles, some consumers decided to boycott Bryant & May and/or donate to the strikers. With such a long-lasting impact, the closing credits of Enola Holmes 2 ring true.
How accurate is Sarah Chapman from Enola Holmes 2?
Sarah Chapman’s disappearance is critical to… Enola Holmes 2, but in reality she never disappeared. Enola Holmes 2 has received positive reviews for its suspenseful mystery, but much of it is made up. In the film, Bryant & May are renamed Lyons, and Sarah’s secret lover is William Lyons, the factory owner’s son. Together, they planned to expose the company’s misdeeds. All this was added for dramatic effect as the real Sarah Chapman worked for Bryant & May for years and rose to become a booker in the factory’s patent office. This earned her a better wage than most and instead of living with a bunch of other poor match girls like in Enola Holmes 2, Sarah lived with her mother until she got married and left the factory. Still, she saw an opportunity to speak out and make a difference, and because she did, history was changed forever.
